Anderson County, TX

County Profile

58,439 residents. Safety, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Anderson County, TX.

Several figures AreaProfile publishes are measured by county and nowhere finer — death rates by intent among them. On this page those describe the geography they are printed on, which is not true of the city and ZIP pages that inherit them.

64out of 100
Area Score
Top 42% of 1,225 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks
Opportunity918th of 1,255 counties measured43
SchoolsTop 23% of 973 counties measured72
Growth793rd of 1,226 counties measured42
Housing affordabilityTop 43% of 1,255 counties measured95
ClimateTop 26% of 1,254 counties measured74
Physical resilienceTop 28% of 1,255 counties measured76
Access647th of 1,255 counties measured81
Economic stability1174th of 1,255 counties measured25
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable published profiles: unemployment is 5.1% and the Opportunity signal places Anderson County in the bottom 27%.

In the public schools here, 46% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 13.2 students for every teacher.

Rent takes 20% of median household income here, below the 30% threshold conventionally called cost-burdened, and the median home is 3.0 times that income.

At a glance

Population
58,439
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$62,068
Bottom 41% nationally
Density
55/sq mi
1062.6 sq mi of land
Median age
39.7
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
Anderson County
Texas
Metro area
Palestine, TX
Nearest major airport
TYR
38 mi · Tyler Pounds Rgnl
Median home value
$185,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment of 5.1% is lower than 19% of the 1,255 measured US locations.

Employment grew 0.1% over the past year, to 19,218 employed residents.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Median household income ±$4,521$62,068Bottom 41%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$1,987$27,075Bottom 13%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate17.4%Top 27%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute24.8 minBottom 44%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher15.4%Bottom 14%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Employment19,218Bottom 22%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (3 years)3.8%Top 14%of 1,255June 2026
Employment change (year over year)0.1%Top 29%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force20,247Bottom 22%of 1,255June 2026
Labor force participation46.3%Bottom 8%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)0.7%Top 18%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate5.1%Top 19%of 1,255June 2026
Unemployment rate
2021/062022/032022/122023/092024/062025/032025/102026/066.63.7
Monthly unemployment rate from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, most recent value 5.1% in June 2026. A break in the line is a month the Bureau of Labor Statistics did not publish for this area — it is left empty rather than estimated.
Median household income, successive ACS releases
202120222023202462k50k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $62,068 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

46% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 45% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.

There are 13.2 students for every full-time teacher, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
25
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
13.2
across all schools here
Math proficiency
46.1%
Top 32% in Texas
Reading proficiency
44.7%
Top 28% in Texas
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
PALESTINE H SPALESTINE ISD1,00312.5
STORY INTPALESTINE ISD67016.332%37%
PALESTINE J HPALESTINE ISD45613.052%42%
SOUTHSIDE ELPALESTINE ISD44214.732%27%
WESTWOOD H SWESTWOOD ISD40510.7
WESTWOOD ELWESTWOOD ISD40414.422%24%
NORTHSIDE PRIPALESTINE ISD40016.0
FRANKSTON ELFRANKSTON ISD38116.658%58%
WESTWOOD PRIWESTWOOD ISD37817.2
ELKHART ELELKHART ISD35318.6
ELKHART H SELKHART ISD3059.5
ELKHART MIDDLEELKHART ISD28314.947%47%

67.7% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with rather than how the schools perform, which is why AreaProfile shows it and does not score it.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data. Schools are placed by ZIP code, so this is which schools are in this place rather than which one a particular address is zoned for — district boundaries do not follow municipal ones, and enrollment zones change. Fully virtual schools are excluded: they enroll students from across the state while reporting one administrative address, and counting them here would describe a school population this place does not have. The assessment covers grades 3 through 8, so a high school shows no proficiency figure — a dash in those columns means the test was not given at that school, not that it performed badly. Proficiency is measured against Texas’s own standard, so it compares cleanly within the state and only broadly against other states; AreaProfile therefore ranks it within state. The directory is current, while the proficiency figures are from the last school year with national coverage before the pandemic interrupted testing.

Housing & affordability

How it’s calculated →

Median rent of $1,041 takes 20% of median household income, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened.

A median home costs 3.0 times median household income here, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
20.1%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
3.0×
median home value ÷ median income
Median gross rent
$1,041
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$185,300
2024 ACS 5-Year
MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price to income2.99Top 49%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate72.3%Bottom 39%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±11920,648Top 35%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year
Median gross rent ±$66$1,041Top 27%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$20,101$185,300Top 49%of 3,2192024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income20.1%Top 20%of 3,2162024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate14.9%Top 47%of 3,2222024 ACS 5-Year

Both affordability measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with, so the comparison is like for like. They describe housing cost against local earnings and are not a cost-of-living index — transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not included, and a place can look affordable here and still be expensive to live in for reasons this does not capture.

Growth & development

How it’s calculated →
Development Momentum
42/ 100
Ranks 793 of 1,226 published city profiles
Permitting is decreasing — 3 consecutive years, measured from 2022 to 2025.

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

Population has grown 3% since 2020, reaching 59,512 in 2024.

Permit activity has fallen for 3 consecutive years.

Population is still rising, but more slowly than in the preceding year.

New construction is predominantly single-family: only 0% of permitted units are in buildings of five or more homes.

At 0.4 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US locations.

Units permitted
26
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.4
Bottom 5% nationally
Year over year
+24%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings
Population, annual estimates
2020202120222023202460k57k
Census Population Estimates Program, July 1 of each year. These annual estimates are designed for year-over-year comparison, unlike the ACS five-year figure shown as this profile's population.
Housing units permitted per year
202220232024202518713
Annual totals from the Census Building Permits Survey. Permitting in 2025 was lower than 2022 (−93%).

Weather & climate

7 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 94°F and January a low of 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 46.8 inches.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station PALESTINE 2 NE, 5.3 miles from this location.
Precipitation
JFMAMJJASOND4.5"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation46.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall0.1"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high94°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months71991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing36°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. They describe what a typical year looks like rather than what the weather is doing today.

Physical risk

76 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are cold wave, hurricane and lightning.

Cold waveModerate
Ice stormModerate
LightningModerate
WildfireModerate
HurricaneModerate
LandslideModerate
DroughtModerate
Winter weatherModerate

Low or minimal exposure: tornado, strong wind, heat wave, inland flooding, hail, earthquake.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA National Risk Index county record. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offences. AreaProfile does not publish reported crime, and this is not a substitute for it — it says nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Anderson County records 3.6 homicide deaths per 100,000 residents a year, near the middle of counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 17.3 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, because nationally most firearm deaths are suicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 38.1 per 100,000 residents in Anderson County.

Homicide
3.6
per 100,000 residents · under 10 deaths
Firearm deaths, all intents
17.3
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
38.1
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
36.4
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides. The two columns overlap and should not be added.

Age-adjusted rates from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC for Anderson County as a whole — these rates are not published below county level. A county can hold both a dense city centre and a suburb whose experience of it is nothing alike, so this describes the county around Anderson County rather than Anderson County itself. That is why AreaProfile shows these figures and does not put them in the Area Score. Where fewer than ten deaths were recorded the count is suppressed at source, and a rate built on single figures moves sharply between releases. What this measure has that reported crime does not: a death certificate is filed whether or not the local police agency submitted a return that year, so the figures stay comparable between places and over time.

What this profile does not cover

Three things people look for are missing from every AreaProfile page, and each is missing for a reason rather than by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them and the weighting is documented on the methodology page.

Reported crime
The FBI’s Crime Data Explorer is the only source for reported offences with national coverage and a published method, and it requires an API key AreaProfile does not hold. Arrest counts, news volume and commercial “safety scores” are not substituted in the meantime. What is published above under Safety is a different measurement — deaths rather than offences, from death certificates rather than police returns — and it covers no property crime at all.
Taxes
No tax dataset has met the source admission test for coverage, transparent methodology and update cadence. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Full cost of living
No public source publishes one with national coverage and a documented method. Housing affordability above is computed from published rent, price and income, and excludes transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes — commuting cost in particular tends to offset suburban housing savings.

Access

5 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest 38 miles away.

AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Tyler Pounds RgnlTYR38 mi8,334 ft
East Texas RgnlGGG67 mi10,000 ft
Tstc WacoCNW84 mi8,600 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

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Area Score
64
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Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource periodUpdated
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle28-day NASR cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)Periodic dataset versions (v1.20.0 current)
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 NormalsEvery ten years (next release follows the 2001–2030 period)
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
June 2026Monthly
DemographicsU.S. Census Bureau
Population Estimates Program
July 1, 2024 estimateAnnual (vintage released each spring)
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026Monthly, roughly three weeks after the reference month
Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-YearAnnual (5-year estimates released each December)
safetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
April, 2025 to March, 2026Quarterly, with a rolling twelve-month window alongside complete calendar years
schoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2019-20 school year; 2024-25 school yearDirectory annually; assessment results as EDFacts releases them

Profile recalculated August 30, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology or browse every source.

Cities in Anderson County, TX